US forces have been accused of launching a daring raid into Syria to destroy a construction site close to the Iraqi border, killing at least eight civilians.

US military helicopters were reported to have crossed into Syria to drop troopsPhoto: AFP/GETTY IMAGES

By Our Foreign Staff

8:39PM GMT 26 Oct 2008

In an echo of the Israeli air strikes which last year targeted a suspected Syrian nuclear facility, US military helicopters were reported to have crossed into Syria to drop troops who then executed the mission.

The state news agency Sana reported that eight civilians had been killed in the raid. "Four American helicopters violated Syrian airspace around 16:45 local time (1345 GMT) on Sunday," it said.

"American soldiers" who had emerged from helicopters "attacked a civilian building under construction and fired at workmen inside, causing eight deaths.

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Reports gave different locations for the attack, although all appeared to be sites close to the border, near the town of Abu Kamal. #

The private television channel al-Dunia said that the village of Al-Sukkiraya had been attacked, with nine civilians killed and 14 others injured, while local residents told the Associated Press that helicopters carrying US soldiers raided the village of Hwijeh, 10 miles inside Syria's border.

Sgt Brooke Murphy, a US military spokesman in Baghdad, said that commanders were investigating the reports.

In Washington, the Pentagon made no immediate comment.

Western intelligence agencies and US commanders believe that al-Qaeda in Iraq, the regional terrorist group allied to so-called "core al-Qaeda" based in Pakistan, operates inside Syria, which it uses as a transit point for foreign jihadists to cross the border into Iraq.

Washington has accused the government in Damascus of turning a blind eye and any attack inside Syria could have been targeting high-level terrorist suspects. Syria claims US helicopters attacked village

However, the suggestion by Syrian officials that a construction site was the target has echoes of a raid by Israeli warplanes.

Israel's at first mysterious operation inside enemy territory in September last year was later explained as an attack on a suspected nuclear facility which was under construction with the help of North Korean experts.

Analysts suggested that the operation last year was also intended as a warning shot not just to Syria but also to Iran.

Washington has accused Damascus of failing to provide adequate co-operation to the International Atomic Energy Agency in its investigation into the mystery facility bombed by Israel in September last year that US officials have charged was a nuclear plant.

President George W. Bush said last month that Syria - which has close links to Iran and to Hizbollah in Lebanon - continues to sponsor terror.